Mental Harassment, Fake Escort Service Poster: Delhi Woman's 2-Year Hell

A woman from North Delhi, employed at a multinational company in Gurgaon, endured over two years of relentless cyber harassment that ended in the arrest of the accused, Yasin Shaikh, in Maharashtra's Pune.

Yasin Shaikh, a 49-year-old auto-rickshaw driver with no prior criminal record, allegedly hacked the woman's Facebook account, posted her mobile number with obscene captions, and plastered posters across Pune falsely advertising her family as running a "call girl service." This left the woman and her family facing a barrage of unwanted calls. 

The Delhi Police's cybercrime team, after months of investigation, arrested Shaikh, who confessed to the acts during interrogation.

Cyber Terror

The victim, a married woman from Sabzi Mandi in North Delhi, became the target of a cyber harassment campaign that began approximately two years ago. The accused, Yasin Shaikh, hacked her Facebook account and manipulated family photos to create obscene images, which he circulated on social media. 

He falsely claimed that the family was involved in prostitution, posting the woman's mobile number alongside derogatory captions such as "call girl service." As a result, the victim received countless calls from unknown numbers inquiring about "rates".

Shaikh frequently deleted his social media accounts and created new ones every few hours, making it difficult for authorities to trace him. 

In Pune, he posted flyers on city walls and in the toilets of the railway station, displaying the victim's mobile number and advertising a fictitious escort service. 

The relentless harassment took a severe toll on the victim's mental health, forcing her to live under what authorities described as a form of "digital arrest." The ordeal also strained her family, with her husband and other relatives facing harassment due to the defamatory content. 

The situation reached a breaking point when the woman lodged a complaint with the Delhi Police.

The Motive 

During interrogation, Shaikh claimed to have been friends with a woman who worked alongside the victim's husband at a company in Gurgaon. Shaikh disapproved of their professional association and repeatedly urged his friend to distance herself from the husband. 

When she refused and subsequently "unfriended" him on social media due to his obsessive behaviour, Shaikh retaliated by targeting the victim and her family. Shaikh admitted to extracting the victim's mobile number from her social media account and using it to create defamatory posts. He also confessed to making repeated calls and sending messages to both the victim and her husband. 

His actions, he claimed, were meant to punish the couple for ignoring his demands. The woman Shaikh referred to as his friend denied any romantic involvement, stating she had only considered him an acquaintance before cutting contact due to his inappropriate behaviour.